Ever tried to navigate a website that feels like you’re untangling holiday lights? Pages everywhere, menus that lead to digital dead-ends and website content that plays hide-and-seek. It’s enough to frustrate even the most patient customer.
If you’re dealing with a similar digital knot on a client's website, it might be time to create a sitemap. From there, you can create a digital space so intuitive that visitors can find what they need faster than you can say “user-friendly.”
Consider this your Wix Studio guide to site mapping, including the benefits and how to create a solid sitemap.
What is a sitemap?
Think blueprint, but for websites. Just as an architect drafts plans before construction begins, a web designer creates a sitemap before building a website. It’s a visual representation of your website’s structure, which shows how all your pages are organized and linked together. Sitemaps come in three main flavors.
Visual sitemaps: Graphical representations used for planning
XML sitemaps: File-based sitemaps that help search engines understand the structure of your website
HTML sitemaps: User-facing webpages showing the site’s structure and links
We'll focus on visual sitemaps, the foundation of the other two types of sitemaps.
Why is site mapping important?
Building a website without a sitemap is akin to setting off on a road trip without GPS. You might eventually reach your destination, but you’ll likely waste time, miss some great spots and possibly end up frustrated.
A well-crafted sitemap guides your web design process, covers all the critical user needs and helps search engine crawlers index your website more effectively. Here are some specific benefits.
Improved SEO performance: A well-structured sitemap will provide a detailed catalog of your website, which helps search engines understand the relationships between your pages and the importance of each one.
Enhanced user experience: With so much cutthroat competition in the digital world, user experience is your best bet to convert more leads. If visitors can find what they’re looking for with minimal clicks, they’ll be more likely to buy. If not, they’ll just get frustrated and leave. With a logical website structure based on website information architecture, you can group related content together to create a natural flow that keeps users engaged and exploring.
A bird’s-eye view of your website: As you map out your pages, you might spot areas where you’re missing crucial content. Maybe you realize you need an FAQ page or that your product categories could be organized better. You might also discover opportunities. Perhaps two seemingly unrelated pages could be connected to create a better user flow.
How to make a sitemap
01. Brainstorm your content
Get all your ideas out of your head and onto paper (or screen). Start by listing every single page you want on your website. We mean every single one: your homepage, your privacy policy, your product pages and every blog post.
Forget about organization—that comes later. Instead, list all your main pages, category pages, blog topics, product listings, about pages and resource sections.
Pro tip: If you’re planning a redesign, start with your current pages, then add the new website pages you want to include. If you’re starting a new website project, consider your business goals and brainstorm new pages you’ll need to achieve them.
02. Organize your pages
Bring some order to all the chaos you created in the previous step. Start grouping related pages together. Think of it as creating neighborhoods in your website city.
For example, all your product pages might go under a “Products” category. Your “About,” “Contact” and “Team” pages might group together under a “Company” category. Blog posts can be organized by topic.
03. Establish your hierarchy
With your pages grouped, decide on the hierarchy. Which pages deserve the most attention? These will be your main navigation items—the pages accessible directly from your homepage.
For instance, these might include categories like “Products,” “Services,” “About” and “Contact.” Under these main categories, you’ll have your subpages.
That said, you don’t want too deep of a hierarchy. As a general rule, users shouldn’t need to click more than three times to reach any page on your website. If you find yourself creating too many levels, you might need to rethink your structure.
04. Create your visual map
A picture is worth a thousand and one words. So, bring your sitemap to life visually. You could use anything from good-old PowerPoint to specialized site mapping tools for this. That said, a pen and paper serves just as well, which can be handy if doing things by hand helps you look for gaps and opportunities.
Many web developers and designers use sitemap templates to speed up this process. These templates can serve as a starting point for your website planning.
05. Review and refine your sitemap
As with all things creative, site mapping is an iterative process. Instead of finalizing your website sitemap right away, take a step back and look at it with fresh eyes.
Ask yourself:
Does the structure make sense?
Is it balanced, or are some sections much deeper than others?
Are all important pages accessible?
06. Share it with your team
Two heads (or more) are better than one, especially when it comes to site mapping. Share your sitemap with your team or even a trusted friend. They might spot issues you’ve missed or come up with ideas you hadn’t considered.
If you’re working with a client, a sitemap is crucial for getting buy-in on the site structure before you start designing. You can also combine it with the product wireframes to get feedback from all the stakeholders before investing further resources.
07. Monitor and adjust your sitemap
A sitemap isn’t a one-and-done thing. Instead, monitor its performance and make adjustments accordingly.
One powerful tool for this is website heat mapping. Heat maps provide a visual representation of how users interact with your pages, showing where they click, how far they scroll and where they spend the most time.
Use this data to reconsider the placement of important content, the hierarchy of your navigation menu and the wording of section labels.
Sign up for Wix Studio and start your next great site today.
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